Robin Buell, MAES plant biologist, helped sequence the rice genome and is part of the consortium that recently released the first draft of the potato genome. She’s also helping lead a $5.4 million USDA grant to use genomics to improve potato and tomato varieties.

Pushing the plant and soil science envelope

Michigan State University is recognized as having one of the finest plant and soil science research programs in the world. A rash of nationally funded projects in the past several years has Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES) scientists looking at plants in a whole new way.